Nigerian gay footballer deported by Austria has gone underground; Austrian police charge his counsellor with 'promoting an illegal stay'

By Paul Canning

25 year-old Nigerian gay footballer Cletus U, deported by Austria 5 May on a a Frontex (European Union agency) plane to Nigeria with 44 others (and 113 guards) despite mass protests in Vienna, has told a leading Austrian newspaper that he is now in the Lagos slums, living in a shed with five other men.

He is terrified that his homosexuality will be discovered, particularly because that was the focus of his well-publicised Austrian case, which was covered internationally as well as on YouTube.

His parents, who live in the Muslim North, where Sharia law is in force including the death penalty for homosexuality, now know about his sexuality.

"The police can come at any time," he said, "beat me, imprison or kill, because I am the way I am." In the slums, he could not trust anybody. On the phone to the newspaper he had to "behave", he said, and "fit in with those who are in the vicinity".  He only dares to venture out in the dark.

Cletus was dumped in Lagos with only the clothes he was wearing when he was seized by police at a training session for the football team he coached 29 April and given €50. He couldn't take his mobile phone "to talk with friends" and, he alledges, when he was detained he was unable to shower and wasn't allowed to see either a doctor or his lawyer. He says he suffered a shoulder injury during arrest, which has persisted.

More seriously, he alledges that he wasn't deported 'properly' and he never met a representative of the Nigerian Embassy.

This is contradicted by the Austrian Federal Police representative: Cletus U. had, according to them,  "possessed [the requisite] safe journey home certificate".

His counsellor Tim Außerhuber claims that Cletus U., who had been living illegally in Austria for six years, asked to make a asylum claim on sexuality grounds but this was illegally denied him. "Asylum applications can that same day be turned down," Außerhuber says, "but they must be approved and processed."

The green judiciary spokesman Albert Steinhauser has asked Interior Minister Maria Fekter in a parliamentary question [PDF] to comment on "irregularities in the handling of the prisoners [which included Cletus]". Following the lead of the police, any problems were denied by Fekter.

Now Viennese Police have charged Außerhuber 29 June with undermining a "method of enforcing expulsion measures", thus facilitating an "illegal stay knowingly"- an attempt to prevent the deportation of his client (the asylum claim) which is now potentially subject to a €15000 fine or six weeks imprisonment under a provision of the 2010 Aliens Act which prohibits "support" for "illegal entry and illegal residence". Der Standard says that other asylum advisers have been similarly threatened.

The Vienna lawyer and asylum expert George Bürstmayr says that fears were raised when it was discussed in parliament that the new law could 'become a trap for asylum advisers'. Austrian Greens human rights spokeswoman Alev Korun described the use of the new law as "baseless intimidation" and wondered if the Interior ministry wants to “illegalize legal advice for asylum seekers”.

Vienna police spokesman Johann Golub said that it "is not currently clear whether the [prosecution of Außerhuber] will continue."

A refugee support organisation The Schmetterling (Butterfly) Society has said it will appeal Cletus U.'s deportation to the Austrian Verfassungsgerichtshof (Court of Constitution).

Cletus U. says that, whatever happens, he will try again to make his way back to Austria: "It is better for me to perish in the desert or in the sea than here in Nigeria."

Corrections: This post has been edited to correct Außerhube's status from lawyer to counsellor and to correct the errors in the identification of the Green Party judiciary spokesman and Austrian Interior Minister.

UK: New report calls for end to asylum seekers’ destitution

Source: British Red Cross

The British Red Cross has launched an advocacy report which highlights the dire hardships facing destitute asylum seekers – and the urgent need for a more humane asylum system.

The report – titled Not gone, but forgotten (PDF) – explores the Red Cross’ work supporting thousands of destitute asylum seekers and refugees throughout the UK, and the daily challenges they face just to survive. 

In particular, it explores the experiences of refused asylum seekers who have reached the end of the appeal process and suggests some policy solutions to help improve their humanitarian situation. The report’s findings show that, under current policy, thousands of refused asylum seekers are denied employment, made homeless, refused healthcare and rely on handouts to survive.

Chief executive Nick Young said: “Our report shows that current policy is making thousands of refused asylum seekers destitute. Unable to work and provide for themselves, deprived of accommodation and denied healthcare, these people’s lives are in limbo.

“The British Red Cross believes that anyone who comes to this country fleeing persecution and applies for asylum should be treated in a way that maintains their dignity. Making them homeless, withdrawing support and often forcing them to go underground with the risk of exploitation and illegal work does not meet with these standards and is actually counter-productive.”

Four key changes

In the destitution report, the Red Cross suggests four key policy changes to the asylum system that would improve the humanitarian situation of this vulnerable group:

• The adoption of the principle that destitution should not be an outcome of the asylum system.
• The provision of support for all destitute refused asylum seekers with dependent children.
• An end-to-end asylum support structure, including permission to work, until the applicant is either removed or granted leave to remain.
• An entitlement to healthcare throughout the asylum process.

Tinashe (name changed) is an asylum seeker and a former accountant who was forced to flee his native Zimbabwe as a result of political persecution. He has been receiving support from the Red Cross to provide for himself and his family as a result of him being destitute.

He said: “I have a wife and two young boys, who make my heart bleed each time I look at them and realise I cannot provide for them like a father should. We are faced with uncertainty each day – and survive only on the goodwill of friends for a roof over our head, and charities like the Red Cross for food and clothing.”

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LGBT asylum, immigration, migration @ international Prides 2010

Out4Immigration @ San Francisco Pride 2010 (more pictures)

IGLHRC @ New York Pride

Immigration Equality @ New York Pride (more pictures)

Ardhis @ Paris Pride

 

Protesting the eight countries with the death sentence for LGBT in Paris

Austrian migrants group MiGay participated in Vienna's Rainbow Parade

RFSL @ Stockholm Pride (more pictures)

 

Armenian and Turkish language signs were seen alongside each other at Istanbul pride

Are we missing anyone? Let us know!

• Pictures and video from London

Report condemns member states' protection of non-EU nationals

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Europolitics

By David Kepes

The European Commission released a report, on 16 June, condemning the widely divergent differences in member states’ international protection of citizens, which they implement through the Qualification Directive. This directive sets minimum standards for identifying people in need of protection, such as asylum granting.

Numerous member states, the report says, are interpreting the directive in very different ways, leading to unsatisfying results. The report identifies several key deficiencies, most notably issues of incomplete and/or incorrect transposition by member states.

The Commission has attempted to reinforce the directive before. In October 2009, it drafted an amendment that sought to clarify many of the identification criteria.

The executive found that the existing rules for identification were too broad, and many case decisions were being overturned on appeal. The amendment, still tabled, seeks to clarify the legal diction as well as harmonise the rights granted to refugees and those who benefit from subsidiary protection, which is no longer justifiable.

The largest differences in rights exist in the areas of duration of residence permits, access to social welfare, health care and the labour market. In addition to working on enhancing the rights, the amendment also wants to enhance migrants' access to these rights. Many countries lack rules and regulations for communicating to one another about the qualifications of migrants. Many educational degrees are not recognised, and in some countries the documentation cannot even be accessed by the migrants once they have left the country they are emigrating from.

This amendment has yet to be addressed by the European Council and Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called on the Parliament and the Council to adopt the amendment so that the risks presented by such diverging policies could be limited.

The Qualification Directive was drafted in 2004 and was designed to define common criteria for identifying cases that warrant international protection and to ensure that all member states were guaranteeing a satisfactory minimum of benefits to those in need of such protection. Unfortunately, the report states, the level of benefits conferred onto victims, as well as the chance of earning the protection status are very different and this has led to asylum shopping.

This can be very dangerous for asylum seekers, who may attempt to manoeuvre through Europe without any identification or security benefits. Many migrants face discrimination or find that they are unable to get asylum and end up becoming illegal residents in the country they settle in.

Countries with more favourable asylum practices are also worried about overburdening their welfare systems and their taxpayers. Member states had to transpose the directive by 10 October 2006. However, nine member states have been taken to the Court of Justice for failing to comply. Five cases were withdrawn, and judgements were given in four. Despite the findings of the report, all member states have previously said that they completed the transposition of the directive.

Support for gay Iranian asylum seekers in the UK

The Persian Gay and Lesbian Liberators group, based in London is offering help for free for LGBT Iranians.

Amongst the help they can provide from their experience of settling in the UK is:

• Health, registering with a local GP and referrals
• Education, finding a local college and registering with them
• For asylum seekers, assistance with housing referral and filling out the necessary application forms and "any communication they might struggle with" such as Home Office, National Asylum Support Service (NASS), Asylum Registration Card (ARC), lawyers and any other interpreting or translating service they need help with .

If you know anyone that needs this sort of help and support they can contact the group at pgll2010@aol.com

Senegal: addressing escalating arrests and violence

Image via Wikipedia

Source: IGLHRC

In Senegal, same-sex activity has, since 1965, been punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Enforcement of this law has escalated in the past two years, with the arrests of more than 50 people and trials of at least 16 individuals suspected of same-sex activity or being part of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans community.

Simultaneously, state-sanctioned violence and anti-gay rhetoric in the media against individuals believed to be LGBT has increased.

In February 2008, publication of photographs from a same-sex commitment ceremony set off a wave of arrests and an anti-gay media frenzy and sent dozens of gay men into exile. In December 2008, police raided an HIV training hosted by a local AIDS Service organization — AIDES-Senegal. Those present were arrested, beaten, held in appalling conditions and sentenced to eight years in prison before successfully appealing their convictions. Arrests continued with the apprehension of four men in Darou Mousty in June 2009.

In November, Safinatoul Amal, an organization charged with the spiritual protection of the town of Touba, reportedly raided a man's home and arrested him for "incitement to debauchery" and forming a "network of homosexuals." On December 24, twenty-four men were arrested at a private home in Saly Niax Niaxal and briefly held before being released. The arrests were accompanied by sensational media coverage of LGBT issues, virulently homophobic statements from religious and political leaders, and violence — including physical attacks and the exhumation and desecration of the bodies of deceased people suspected of being LGBT.

IGLHRC has responded to these events and worked closely with emerging LGBT communities in Senegal to protect the human rights of LGBT people and their defenders. Along with regular updates and action alerts designed to bring pressure to bear on Senegal's government, we also provided material support for those fleeing from danger, visited those in prison and provided food and medical supplies, and documented the patterns of abuses faced by LGBT people in Senegal.

Of particular significance is our recent collaboration with None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, that resulted in four audio profiles of LGBT Senegalese, who recount their experiences with hostility and homophobia in the country.

• To hear the interviews visit our blog.

Death of a charity

Source: Left Foot Forward

By Jill Rutter

On a normal Friday morning the offices of Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) were busy with clients queuing up to attend appointments with their caseworkers. Today the 13 offices of RMJ are closed. The charity has folded, leaving up to 10,000 vulnerable people without legal representation. It is one of the biggest charity crashes in UK history. RMJ’s demise raises many important issues about the delivery of legal aid, about ‘advice’ for vulnerable people and about the dependence of charities on government funding.

Refugee and Migrant Justice was founded in 1992 at a time when asylum applications were increasing in the UK. Over the last 18 years it had given legal advice and representation to over 110,000 clients in its many offices and outreach surgeries across England and Wales. In recent years, just over half of its clients were asylum applicants. The charity also helped significant numbers of people who were living illegally in the UK present the full facts of their case to the UK Border Agency and obtain legal status or understand why they cannot obtain it.

RMJ had built a reputation for taking on complex asylum and immigration cases, often those that had been rejected by other firms of solicitors. There is considerable ‘cherry picking’ of asylum and immigration cases by some firms of solicitors, a trend worsened by a fixed fee system for legally-aided asylum and immigration. Research has shown that unscrupulous law firms are more than willing to take on easy cases, knowing that the fixed fee will more than cover their costs. But complex cases, for example, those of stateless persons, are turned away.

Over the years, RMJ’s work righted many wrongs. It secured the return to the UK of John Bosco Nyombi, a gay Ugandan man who was unlawfully removed from the UK. Nyombi was picked up by the UK Border Agency and told he was be taken to an interview about his case. Instead of taking him for this interview, Nyombi’s mobile phone was taken from him and he was flown back to Uganda. After his arrival in his home country, Nyombi was detained and beaten.

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LGBTI rights discussion in Ghana

Image via Wikipedia

Source: African Activist

Nana Oye Lithur, an outspoken champion of human rights in Ghana, has come out and said that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people have rights to be respected under the law. According to Lithur, it is time to begin the conversation, Ghana News Now reports.

Gays and lesbians may be frowned upon by adherents of Ghanaian tradition and culture but, according to a human rights lawyer, they have rights to be respected under the law.

Practitioners of homosexuality, the ranks of whom are said to be on the increase in the country, have received scathing condemnation lately.

But Nana Oye Lithur, an outspoken champion of human rights, took a different path on Thursday and declared that it was about time Ghanaians discussed the issue of homosexual rights dispassionately.

The phenomenon has become topical following recent increases in the communities of practitioners of that sexual orientation, not only in Ghana but also across Africa, and the intensification of their demand for legal recognition.

In Ghana, however, they have remained in their closets, largely due to the fear of public condemnation. Confronting the issue, Nana Lithur said homosexuality was not a crime, as many people believed,_ but a sexual orientation like heterosexuality to which people were at liberty to make a preference.

She said unnatural carnal knowledge, which was a crime under the Criminal Code, could not be necessarily considered as homosexuality “because even heterosexuals could have unnatural carnal knowledge.

“I think we should try and understand the situation. If we don’t discuss’ it as a country, how do we overcome the problem?” she asked.

African Activist recently posted about how the Muslim community in Ghana organised a large protest against homosexuality in Takoradi. The area has a vibrant lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and the protest was designed to challenge the government into action.

France: Said is free and has found refuge

Image by mafate69 via Flickr

Source: Ardhis, Lesbian and Gay Pride of Lyon

[Translation by F Young]

Inter-agency news release

Said is Free and has been Granted Refugee Status
Paris, June 26, 2010 - Nearly three weeks ago, our two associations were alerted of Said's situation.

Said is an Algerian. He arrived in France four years ago. For three years, he has been living in Lyon, France, in a PACS civil union with René.

Two years ago, Said had sought asylum because of fears of persecution as a homosexual in Algeria, but his application was rejected by the Office Français de Protection des réfugiés et apatrides (OFPRA - French bureau for the protection of refugees and stateless persons), and then by the Cour Nationale du Droit d'Asile (national court on the right of asylum) last December. The prefecture of the Rhone then notified him that he was required to leave French territory within a month. Said and Rene filed an application for review (recours gracieux) before the Prefect of the Rhone seeking the annulment of the decision to deport him, arguing the reality of their PACS civil union, whose shared life they said was solidly documented over more than three years. Poorly advised, they did not file an administrative appeal (recours contentieux) before the administrative tribunal. The Prefect did not respond to the formal complaint and therefore confirmed its decision to expel him. Three weeks ago, the police came to the couple's home and placed Said in detention.

Despite interventions by our associations and despite the evidence provided to the prefecture by the couple's lawyer, the expulsion was not suspended.

Fortunately, in the meantime, Said was able to assert his right to claim emergency asylum in the meantime. He therefore requested a review of his situation by OFPRA. Yesterday, Said was recognized as a refugee under the Geneva Convention. He was released, his expulsion was rescinded and he received permanent protection.

Our associations are reassured about Said and welcome a particularly strong decision by OFPRA.

However, we do not fail to note also that if OFPRA had not granted him refugee status, Said could be in Algeria today, separated from his companion even though he had been living with him for three years now.

Do we accept that the authorities of our country separate a couple because one of them has no papers? What about the fundamental right to privacy and family? Do we accept that our country breaks in a few days the lives of men and women, some living here for many years, for no other reason than to achieve a target number which has no explanation?

[Original]
Said est libre et reconnu réfugie - communique interassociatif

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Gay life in Syria

Image via Wikipedia

Source: al-bab.com

The Gay Middle East website (GME) has published a report summarising the situation for gay people in Syria –a country which is rarely discussed in this connection.

Although "carnal relations against the order of nature" are still punishable by up to three years in jail, GME detects some improvement in the authorities' attitude over the last two years:

During this period, gay and lesbians were occasionally harassed or even imprisoned (one notable exception was the case of an asylum seeker to the UK), but the majority, if they behaved very cautiously and did not come out or demanded rights were left alone with minor harassment.

However, it suggests that an AFP report last year, headed “Syrian gays edge gingerly out of the closet” was "a bit exaggerated". 

GME continues:

The increase of accessibility to the internet for Syrians, albeit under very strict control, has enabled many gays and lesbians for the first time to communicate, network and develop a nascent self-consciousness. The Syrian authorities seem to have been quick to catch up with this trend. 

Members of the LGBT Syrian communities now exercise extreme caution when contacting each other or exposing their identity on the web. This is because the Syrian Secret police has now increased their presence on the web and try to intercept gays and lesbians by chatting to them as potential dates or mates. 

Syria has also moved to block various LGBT related sites and search terms. In the last months GME has received increasing complaints ... on police raids. In recent raids over private parties 25 gay men were arrested ... They are now at least several weeks held under arrest without bail and face a very uncertain future. 

US grants gay Uzbek man asylum

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has won asylum for a gay man who feared persecution because of his sexual orientation if forced to return to his native Uzbekistan.

The grant, issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, comes at a time when gay people in Uzbekistan face serious threats, both from police and the surrounding community.

"In Uzbekistan, I lived with terror every day,” said the man, who remains anonymous out of fear of continued persecution. “I was arrested and abused by the police for having an intimate relationship with another man. Even after I escaped the country, the police have tried to track me down at my parents’ home, and I know if I had to return, my life would be in danger.”

The Uzbek Criminal Code makes “homosexual conduct” a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. The U.S. State Department has also reported that prisoners face a high-risk of torture and abuse; human rights organizations confirm that gay men are especially vulnerable.  

“Our client’s situation highlights the severe risks that gay people face throughout Uzbekistan,” said Erin Meyer ’11, a student who worked on the case. “The police trap gay men, extort them, and send them to prison if they do not pay thousands of dollars in bribes. Our client had already been threatened with arrest and extorted and knew that prison would be next, if he did not escape.”

 The client was referred to the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic by Immigration Equality, a national organization focused on immigration rights for GLBT individuals that provided important assistance in the case.
 
“In Uzbekistan, the police treat the ‘homosexual conduct’ law as a free pass that lets them abuse gay people both physically and politically,” said Donna Azoulay ’10, who also helped prepare the asylum application. “Asylum will allow our client to remain in the United States and begin to rebuild his life without fear that the police stand ready to take him away.”

Since January, four students from the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic —Azoulay ’10, Larra Morris ’11, Meyer ’11, and Jennifer Simcovitch ’11 — prepared the asylum application. The students spent many months conducting interviews, drafting affidavits, researching country conditions, and preparing the client for his interview with the asylum office.

“We are thrilled to have been able to help this young man obtain safety in the U.S.” Morris said. “No one should have to live in fear or hide due to his sexual orientation.”

Columbia Law School’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic addresses cutting edge issues in sexuality and gender law through litigation, legislation, public policy analysis and other forms of advocacy. Under the guidance of Professor Suzanne Goldberg, clinic students have worked on a wide range of projects, from constitutional litigation to legislative advocacy to immigration cases, to serve both individual and organizational clients in cases involving issues of sexuality and gender law.

Video: US State Department announcement on LGBT refugee work

Remarks by U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric Schwartz at a LGBT Pride Month event 22 June.

US and UK failing to take Iraq's gay pogrom seriously

Source: guardian.co.uk

 

By Paul Canning 

 

Last week, 12 Iraqi police officers burst into a house in Karbala, beat up and blindfolded the six occupants and bundled them off in three vans, taking the computers they found with them. The house was then burned down by unknown people.

The six were two gay men, one lesbian and two transgender people, and the house was a new "emergency shelter" run by the Iraqi LGBT organisation.

Two days later, one of the men turned up in hospital with a throat wound saying he'd been tortured. Iraqi LGBT has ordered those in its other two safe houses to move immediately.

The group says the police action is consistent with other state attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Iraq. It has information that the other five have been transported 100 miles north to the interior ministry in Baghdad, where they'll be interrogated (ie tortured) to find out more about the group. Then, going on past experience, they'll probably be handed to militias loyal to Shi'a clerics Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr (both of whom have called for homosexuals to be put to death) and their mutilated bodies will turn up later.

But it is also clear from past experience that there is unlikely to be a sustained international outcry from gay people, governments or others about this latest incident.

Last year, the US state department, following representations by Rep Jared Polis, said that it was investigating reports of trials and executions of LGBT people – including for membership of the Iraqi LGBT group – as well as reports of arrests, beatings and rape by interior ministry security forces. Polis said that at least one gay man has been executed by the government for "membership of a banned organisation" and that "egregious human rights violations ... [are] being carried out by Iraqi government officials from the ministry of the interior".

But this was immediately undermined by the US embassy in Baghdad. Patricia Butenis, its chargé d'affaires, said: "We have no evidence that security forces are in any way involved with these militias."

This official dismissal is echoed in the British foreign office's latest human rights report that does acknowledge persecution in Iraq but claims that "official figures do not show a significant overall increase in violence against, or systematic abuse of, the homosexual community by fundamentalists or militia groups". It makes no mention of allegations of state involvement and repeats claims by Iraq's human rights minister and the interior ministry that murders of LGBT people "will be prosecuted" (none have) and that "homosexuality is not a criminal offence in Iraq". Iraqi LGBT, however, has two documents from a judge ordering arrests of homosexuals in Babel province earlier this year; those arrested have disappeared.

The latest US state department human rights report does suggest that the Iraqi state is offering no protection to LGBT people, saying the "authorities had not announced any arrests or prosecutions of any persons for killing, torturing, or detaining any LGBT individuals by year's end". In diplomatic terms this represents a glacial sort of progress in criticism of the Iraqis. The state department, like the foreign office, is "concerned". But Neil Grungras, executive director of the San Francisco-based Organisation for Refuge, Asylum & Migration, who follows developments closely, says "these concerns have thus far not translated into concrete action".

The foreign office, similarly "concerned", has told Iraqi LGBT for two years that the British embassy in Baghdad is "investigating" reports of state involvement.

In that time Britain has managed to "investigate" and publicly criticise both the Malawian and the Ugandan governments.

At a state department event yesterday, Hillary Clinton touted US support, like Britain's, for African LGBT activists. Four were invited guests and she even offered funding. In both Malawi and Uganda there is a strong religious opposition to homosexuality but this hasn't stopped criticism. Yet in Iraq "religious sensitivities" are mentioned behind the scenes as the reason why Britain won't publicly criticise inaction on the killings of LGBT people, let alone killings by or with the connivance of the Iraqi government. Of course, in reality, the "sensitivities" are primarily political and LGBT people are being sacrificed for the sake of them.

Africa is the "gay international issue du jour" and that's a good thing, but the absence of any attention – any – to Iraq screams out for explanation. Iraqi LGBT has documented 738 killings in five years, similar numbers to those suffered by Iraq's Christian minority. Yet Iraq's state-colluded pogrom of gays isn't the subject of demonstrations by the international gay community, sustained actions by international human rights organisations, protests by lesbian or gay celebrities or even fundraising for "safe houses" – though they have one major funder, the Dutch humanist charity, Hivos.

Ali Hili, Iraq's LGBT leader, said "people in the west have been too quiet for too long about the violence against LGBT people in Iraq. The militia and the powers that be know they can get away with it while that silence continues."

Last year, group members in Iraq responded to the outrageous statement from Butenis, saying they were "fed up with such 'political' words" and that "the Americans are doing nothing to stop the terror campaign against them. They believe that the priority for Hillary Clinton's state department and Obama's administration is to not upset the Iraqi government."

One could say the same of the British and one can understand why LGBT Iraqis are fed up. The foreign office knows about the Karbala raid. Why is someone not sent out immediately to investigate and then, once the truth is known, the foreign office can condemn it? Why are we standing up for some LGBT people in the rest of the world and not others? Can this pogrom carry on happening and not a finger be lifted to try and stop it?

LGBT asylum @ London Pride 2010

The banner which will be leading the contingent

By Paul Canning

A London based organisation Movement for Justice is organising an LGBT asylum themed entry for the Pride march to be held 3 July.

Its slogan will be:

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender, FIGHTING RACISM & HOMOPHOBIA, For the Right of Asylum for LGBT Refugees -Stop the Deportations.

On the day the march/parade  will set off from Baker Street at 1pm and proceed down Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly to rally at Trafalgar Square for 3pm.

The group is calling on other groups to join in with the LGBT asylum theme and march alongside their contingent. People are encouraged to bring flags and balloons and wear something that is white and pink (the colour of the banner).

At Pride the group will launch a petition with the theme 'Enforce the Equality Act' calling for change in the way government treats LGBT asylum seekers. After Pride they want to hold a campaign meeting and later public hearings with asylum seekers testifying about their experience.

For more information call 0208 674 4051 or 07985 403 781 or email aowoladeATyahoo.co.uk

Clinton prioritises LGBT rights in Africa

Image via Wikipedia

Source: 365Gay.com

By Jennifer Vanasco

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience of LGBT State Department workers that she is working to end discrimination against gays and lesbians at home and abroad.

Clinton said, “We reaffirm our commitment to protect and advance the rights of all human beings, of members of the LGBT community around the world.”
“Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love,” she added. “Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum. In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors.

“These dangers are not “gay” issues. This is a human rights issue.”

Of particular note, Clinton said that she has asked every embassy in  in Africa to report on rights of the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The State Department is also providing emergency aid  to human rights activists who are persecuted because they work on LGBT or AIDS issues or are LGBT themselves; working to provide protection for refugees; and ensure that gays have access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.

She said that foreign service employees also make it a practice to visibly support gay rights in countries such as Albania and Slovakia.

Clinton also called for extra vigilence and care at home.

“I think that each and every one of you not only professionally,from every bureau and every embassy and every part of our government, have to do what you can to create a safe space, but also personally  really look for those who might need a helping hand - particularly young people, who still, today, have such a difficult time and who still, in numbers far beyond what should ever happen, take their own lives rather than live that life.

“So I would ask you to please think of ways you can be there for everyone who is making this journey to defend not only human rights globally, but to truly defend themselves and their rights.”

• Read the full text of Hillary Clinton’s speech  and see the video on the same page for more.

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The timing of the arrests of Zimbabwe's LGBTI activists

Source: African Activist

Zimbabwe is writing a new constitution and now moves into the outreach phase where people throughout the country offer their views about what needs to be included in the new constitution. This is the time to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights but the lead advocacy organisation, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), has been raided by police and two employees are preparing their defense instead of advocating for LGBTI rights.

First, the constitutional outreach program has reignited hope in Zimbabwe, the People's Daily Online reports.

The outreach program, which is meant to gather people's views on the new constitution, is expected to last about two months and people in the country are cherishing this once in a lifetime opportunity to define and shape their future and that of future generations.

Riddled by false starts since July last year owing to squabbles over the composition of the outreach teams, talking points to shape the hearings, donor funding and other issues, the utmost assurance was given on Wednesday when President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara appeared together and jointly launched the outreach program.

A total of 70 outreach teams will be deployed countrywide on Monday next week for at least 65 days to gather views of the public on the new constitution which will replace the negotiated 1979 Lancaster House constitution.

The constitutional outreach process will include the discussion of LGBTI rights.

People are also expected to discuss the various human rights and freedoms they want enshrined in the new constitution, including the contentious gay rights.

Second, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-M) has stated that the issue of LGBTI rights needs to be decided by the people, the News Day reports.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-M) led by deputy prime minister Arthur Mutambara on Friday says it has no policy on gays in Zimbabwe and that it was up to the people to decide whether homosexuality should be included in the constitution.

MDC-M deputy national spokesperson, Nhlanhla Dube said his party would be guided by the people’s wishes in the constitutional-making process and would not give them instructions on how to write the supreme law.

“As a party we are guided by the people,” Dube said.

“It is them who should decide whether homosexuality issues should be included on the constitution or not.” Dube agreed however that Zimbabwean culture did not condone homosexuality. Recently, President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai castigated homosexuality when commemorating Women’s Day in Chitungwiza.

This is a very different approach from President Robert Mugabe (Zanu-PF) and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T)'s determination to leave LGBTI rights out of the new constitution. Zimbabwe's Constitution Select Committee (Copac)'s chairman, responding to Mugabe and Tsvangirai, had refused the discussion of LGBTI rights in the new constitution.

Third, with the constitutional outreach programs underway, the timing of the arrests of LGBTI activists in Zimbabwe is suspicious. Right now they are focused on their defense, not on advocating for LGBTI rights in the new constitution. In addition, the state can use these arrests to create a negative story about LGBTI people at the very time Zimbabwe considers the new constitution.

Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) had organised a Sexual Orientation Indaba on February 26 to advocate for the inclusion of sexual orientation in Zimbabwe's new constitution. The also responded to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T)'s determination to leave LGBTI rights out of the new constitution.

How Kiana Firouz became the World's Most Famous lesbian asylum seeker

A demonstrator's sign at the 1 May demo outside the Washington DC UK embassy supporting Kiana (thanks to our reporting), Bita Ghaedi, Nadia Arzane & Bashir Foris. They chanted:
We don’t want to lose
Kiana Firouz
Nadia and Bashir:
let them stay here!
Refugees have rights!
Refugees have rights!

By Paul Canning

By the time Kiana Firouz finally won 'leave to remain' in the UK last Thursday she had become the most well-known lesbian asylum seeker ever with over 45,000 signing an online petition.

When I first heard of her at the beginning of April it was due to one article on Radio Free Europe's website about the film she had made with Ramin Goudarzi-Nejad and Mahshad Torkan.

So I contacted Mahshad and through her a statement from Kiana was published on LGBT Asylum News. This was tweeted and Facebooked and that's where it all began.

A week after her statement appeared here her petition, started for her by Mahshad, had gone from a few hundred derived largely from the Iranian disapora to several thousand. I watched as Kiana's case reverberated online through feminist, lesbian, human rights, political and many, many other networks connected by the Internet.

Within a couple of weeks I was fielding inquiries from The Times, CNN, BBC and others as well as numerous offers of help. But Kiana wasn't talking, and with good reason. She took the well-founded advice of her solicitor.

The UK Home Office's case for rejecting her was based on whether she was well-known to the Iranian authorities or not - i.e. whether she could be safely returned. At her appeal in March (her first case would likely have been thrown out anyway - almost all sexual orientation asylum cases are - but it wasn't handled well) the elderly judge refused to believe that the Iranians would pick up on the early publicity for her film which even by then had seen the YouTube trailer have thousands of views. Incredibly, he hadn't heard of the sophistication of the Iranian's internet monitoring operation (thanks amongst others to Siemens) and rejected her appeal despite accepting that she was lesbian.

As the publicity grew, destroying their argument for rejecting her asylum claim with each inquiry from a journalist referred on by me to her solicitor and then passed on to her case worker at the UK Border Agency, there remained the possibility of simple belligerence and obstinacy by the Home Office, something I've reported on here time and again. Nothing was ever 100% certain - they might think the publicity 'fabricated'.

But it wasn't just the legal advice which meant silence, Kiana was also having a hard time processing the attention. This led to her missing even the premiere of her film last month in London, attended by hundreds largely from the Iranian exile community in London and including many celebrated artists.

For me this was completely understandable but frustrating. We had discussed releasing a statement (something her solicitor agreed to) to answer all the interest and now it can be released. This is what we'd agreed (minus the information that a fresh claim had been lodged):

Dear All,

I would like to thank you for all of your supports, comments and messages. The number of signatures made on my petition overwhelms me. Your supports and your kind letters create enormous hope and courage for all of those who are discriminated for their beliefs and sexual orientation in Iran and all over the world.

I am just an example of an Iranian lesbian who has suffered from injustice and discrimination in a religious country. There are thousands of Iranian LGBT who are suffering and getting tortured by their families and the society for their sexual orientation inside Iran. However I believe that even those who are outside of Iran are facing so many difficulties as well.

I am not the only lesbian or gay person who has been refused asylum by the UK. In its report 'Failing the grade', the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group examined 50 refusal letters and found that 98-99% of claims made by LGBT were being refused compared to 73% for claims made on other grounds.

This includes Iranians but it also includes Iraqis - even since the situation for gays in Iraq, which includes militias systematically hunting them down and killing them, became widely publicised they have been refused. I would like to express my solidarity particularly with Iraqis and the claim for asylum by their leader, Ali Hili.

I would like to draw the attention of all those supporting me to the plight of many other lesbians and gays caught up in the UK asylum system. I would hope that the new British government will take a look at their situation as well as mine.

I hope, this open further opportunity and movement toward an open society in Iran for everyone regardless of their sexual preferences. I also hope to see a day that injustices, tortures and the death penalties that the homosexuals face in Iran be stopped.

Kind regards,

Kiana Firouz

Kiana understood that there were others in the same boat as her but not so well known and agreed with me that those supporting her should know this. I am aware not just through campaigning or working behind the scenes for other specific LGBT asylum seekers but also through the annoyance of those who work on cases when just one gets picked up on, especially by the short-termist media, that it's the UK system which needs, desperately needs, reform.

Many others fall through the cracks, don't get good legal or community support - many are removed back to an unknown fate.

In 2005 26 year old gay Iranian Hussein Nasseri shot himself in his car at a children's playground in Eastbourne days after hearing his second appeal against a Home Office decision to refuse him asylum had failed and that he was to be removed.

Three years ago 27 year old gay Iranian Shahin Portofeh was reduced to sewing his lips and eyes together in desperation to avoid once more being deported. Previously returned to Tehran, he was jailed, lashed, tortured and ultimately faced execution. He somehow managed to escape from custody and return to the UK. Eventually Shahin was allowed to stay.

Kiana does not have asylum, she has 'leave to remain' for five years. This is based on the idea that in five years it might be safe for her to return. Another Iranian lesbian who I know has this status and it is no way to live - to plan ahead with your life, to return to study and a career after spending, as she had done, several years fighting for even this bit of security. She remains terrified that they will, next year, put her back into detention and then send her back. She also remains in grief because of the partner she left behind, believed to be still in jail.

The British government doesn't take LGBT Iranian refugees (from the UNHCR programme) and in case-after-case it has made it as hard as possible for them to secure sanctuary in the UK. As it showed in the case of Mehdi Kazemi (previously the 'world's most famous gay asylum seeker'), officially it believes the Iranian government's lies about life for LGBT in Iran. It does not, officially, believe they are actively persecuted.

They also officially believe it is safe to return to Iraq. Gay cases have been refused during the past two years when there have been several human rights reports as well as major media reports on the pogrom going on in that benighted country for LGBT. Yet the Foreign Office refuses to condemn the Iraqi government and in its latest 'human rights report' said: "official figures do not show a significant overall increase in violence against, or systematic abuse of, the homosexual community by fundamentalists or militia groups".

Let the UK government get no gratitude from the rest of us, the thousands who have shown they care, for grudgingly doing the 'right thing', for giving Kiana her rightful sanctuary. Let it be understood just how pitiful and cowardly and shameful is our actual attitude, in this country which thinks itself nowadays a progressive 'light unto the world' on LGBT rights, to lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender people unfortunate not to be born subjects of the Crown.

Let the new government understand just how awful and inhuman and homophobic an asylum system it has inherited. Let it turn what sounds like good intentions into meaningful and thorough actions.

Let Kiana not be the first but the last.

Americans: Please support the Refugee Protection Act

Source: Human Rights First

15 million.

That's the new figure, just released from the UN refugee agency, of refugees fleeing persecution worldwide. Persecuted for who they are, what they believe, or what they look like.

And what's worse, rather than protection and refuge, those who seek asylum in this country often face more injustice-detained in prisons or prison-like conditions, without basic due process protections, or denied asylum due to an arbitrary filing deadline. [LGBT Asylum News note: see Why the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 Is Good for LGBT Asylum Seekers]

Human Rights First and its allies are meeting with members of Congress next week and we need your help.

• Send a letter to your Senators asking them to co-sponsor The Refugee Protection Act of 2010.

Every day at Human Rights First we see cases of people who have been tortured, brutalized, or persecuted. But these asylum seekers cannot always depend on the U.S. for safe refuge.

The Refugee Protection Act of 2010 (S.3113)-would correct many of the worst abuses under our current system. But our champions in the Senate-Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), and Roland Burris (D-IL)-need our help securing more co-sponsors.

Contact your senators today. Tell them to stand up for refugees, and ask them to support this much-needed bill that would help those fleeing persecution and seeking safe haven in the United States.

Here's what The Refugee Protection Act would do:

• Allow detained asylum seekers to receive prompt hearings by the immigration courts to assess the need for their detention so that these asylum seekers are not subject to prolonged and arbitrary detention;
• Eliminate the one year asylum filing deadline that bars refugees with well-founded fears of persecution from asylum;
• Clarify the "particular social group" basis and "nexus" requirements for asylum so that asylum requests from vulnerable individuals, including women fleeing gender-based persecution, are adjudicated fairly and consistently; and
• Protect refugees from inappropriate exclusion by refining the definitions of "terrorist activity" and "terrorist organization" so that our immigration laws target actual terrorists, as opposed to hurting thousands of legitimate refugees who are not guilty of any wrongdoing and pose no threat to American security.

Thank you for taking action to support asylum-seekers in the United States.

Iraqi police raid Karbala LGBT safe house; fears of 'witch hunt'

The destroyed 'safe' house

Source: Iraqi LGBT

There is growing concern that the Iraqi government is stepping up a witch-hunt against gays and lesbians in the country after a police raid on a Karbala safe house.

On Tuesday 16th June, twelve police officers burst into the house, then violently beat up, and blindfolded the six occupants sheltering there, before bundling them off in three vans.  According to a source who witnessed the raid, the police also confiscated computer equipment before burning down the house.

According to reports, one of the arrested people has turned up in hospital. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the other five individuals, which include two gay men, one lesbian and two transgender people. It is feared they may have been taken to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, where, it is reported, many gay people have been tortured and executed in the last two years.

The one victim found so far - in hospital with slashed throat

Government forces have previously sized people particularly at roadblocks and handed them to militias who have then tortured them and their bodies have later been found.

None of the previous occupying powers have taken any action or delivered any criticism for these atrocities.

Iraqi LGBT feel that the reason the British and United States government in particular didn’t criticises the Iraqi government is because of the legacy of the occupation.

They have criticised the Malawian government and the Ugandan government.

In both those countries there is a strong religious opposition to homosexuality — as there is in Iraq.

Since the fall of Saddam, militias loyal to Shi’a clerics Grand Ayatollah al Sistani and Muqtada al Sadr, both of whom have called for homosexuals to be put to death, have been only too keen to carry out their leaders’ wishes. Over 720 LGBT people have disappeared or been murdered, many of whom have been tortured to death.

There is strong evidence that the government is colluding with these militia groups, by rounding up known homosexual and transgender people.  A small number of safe houses, set up for LGBT people to live in relative safety, have been funded by Iraqi LGBT, a London based human rights group. In the current climate, these homes have been life-savers for those taking refuge in them. The house which was raided on Tuesday had been established in January this year.

With the arrest and the seizure of computers, it is feared the government will step up efforts to round up more of the country’s LGBT population.

Ali Hili, who is the leader of Iraqi LGBT, comments:  “The UK media and politicians have been too quiet for too long about the violence LGBT people in Iraq. The militia and the powers that be know they can get away with it while that silence continues. It really is time for the Iraqi government to act on this and stop playing the role of guilty bystanders, while our brothers and sisters are murdered in silence”

Currently the UK Border Agency is deporting many Iraqis, some who left the country in fear of their lives after death threats from gangsters and religious militia. “The government is grossly underestimating the danger faced by Iraqi refugees." says Ali. "The raid on Tuesday proves for LGBT people especially, Iraq is a no-go zone”.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How the United Kingdom is Hurting LGBT Rights in Iraq (gayrights.change.org)
• Gay Iraqi Asylum Seekers Forcibly Returned by UK to Iraq (lezgetreal.com)

LGBT Asylum News: our news, a fresh appeal and future plans

By Paul Canning

LGBT Asylum News will be 'going slow' for a few weeks.

Posting will be less frequent and less comprehensive though we hope to bring you the first statement from
Kiana Firouz, news from Austria on the fate of deported gay Nigerian footballer Cletus, what's happening on LGBT asylum at London Pride and a very exciting development on how change is to be secured from the new British government - signs so far are best described as 'mixed' - as well as guest posts

We are currently talking to a funder on expanding the work and branching out in a new, exciting direction  to provide more help for the international LGBT advocate network - and we will be asking for your thoughts about our plans. We hope to announce this big development at a conference in early July. But whilst this is happening we have much less resources to devote to the website and, unfortunately, this means money.  

We recently issued an appeal and thank those who supported us, unfortunately it wasn't enough to stop us slowing down for a while.

If you'd like to help that will be gratefully appreciated and reflected back in the ongoing service we hope we're providing! As well as this website we do also work 'behind the scenes' on projects we can't necessarily talk about as well as helping individuals

Contact us at gayasylumuk AT gmail.com if you need more information or have any questions.

Breaking: Kiana Firouz has asylum

By Paul Canning

LGBT Asylum News has confirmed that Iranian lesbian Kiana Firouz today received 'leave to remain' in the UK - saving her from removal to Tehran after two refusals, originally and at appeal.

Kiana has been the focus of the largest ever international campaign for an LGBT asylum seeker, with over 45,000 signing a petition. We published Kiana's statement back in April.

Watch this space for updates.

In Indonesia homophobia is on the rise

Source: Inside Indonesia

By Jamison Liang

In recent months, Indonesia has witnessed demonstrations against two conferences aiming to discuss the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The first occurred in response to the fourth regional meeting of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), scheduled to take place in Surabaya, East Java on 26-28 March 2010 and supported by Indonesia's leading LGBT organisation, GAYa NUSANTARA. A month later in Depok, West Java, a workshop on transgender issues sponsored by the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found itself in the same predicament.

In both of these incidents, the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), an Islamist organisation with a record of violent tactics, led the choir of critics against LGBT citizens. In both cases, the attacks on the conferences prompted their cancellation. In their protests, FPI and its supporters denounced LGBT sexualities and genders as not belonging in Indonesia and contravening Islamic morals and beliefs.

A disturbing feature of both events was the inability or unwillingness of police to prevent detractors from disrupting the meetings or to ensure the safety of conference participants, even though one of the meetings was endorsed by the Indonesian government. As such, these events reveal the growing influence of Islamist parties in Indonesia and the challenges facing Indonesian LGBT rights activists.

An international meeting goes awry

ILGA, a major global network of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist organisations, selected Surabaya-based GAYa NUSANTARA to host the fourth conference of its Asian branch. ILGA has a history of successfully organising workshops on gender, sexuality and activism in the Asian region. It had previously held meetings in Mumbai (2002), Cebu (2005), and Chiang Mai (2008), all with little to no backlash from local communities. With ILGA looking to bring its meeting to Indonesia for the first time, GAYa NUSANTARA emerged as a leading candidate for organising the 2010 gathering, billed with the slogan 'LGBT Asia Moving Forward'.

Controversy arose early in the week of the conference when media outlets began reporting that gays and lesbians from around the world would be descending upon Surabaya for the three-day event at the Mercure Hotel. In response, FPI and its supporters approached the Mercure management, strongly encouraging them to withdraw from the ILGA conference or face demonstrations. Mercure agreed to the request, backing out of its contract with ILGA and thereby forcing the ILGA board to identify a new site with only a few days to spare. The board quickly settled on the Oval Hotel and secured an agreement from hotel management to use its conference rooms.

Read more »

Guardian editorial: Home Office LGBT asylum decisions "breathtaking"

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The Guardian newspaper in an editorial to mark the start of Refugee Week has called on the government to live up to "David Cameron's early words about taking refugees "to our hearts"".

It says that 'hope' has been engendered by Cameron's words - "a contrast with his predecessor as Tory leader, Michael Howard" - as well as "the infusion of Liberal Democrat thinking into the coalition agreement".

However it points to two early examples which 'sit uneasily' with such hope: the coalition government's promise to 'end child detention' whilst removing minors to unstable Afghanistan, and; LGBT asylum:

As for the coalition's promise to bar the removal of asylum seekers who live in fear of their home country's law owing to their sexuality, a great deal of work will be needed to translate warm general words into individual decisions. Practitioners claim 49 sexuality-based claims in every 50 are refused at the first hearing. People can be advised to go home and "be discreet" about their homosexuality, and that is only after they have seen off the breathtaking cases often made against them. Home Office officials will cheerfully cite an individual's failure to visit gay clubs or browse on gay websites as evidence that they may be straight.

... As things stand, asylum seekers are too often made to feel as if they have left one country where they face persecution, only to arrive at another where they are presumed to be liars.